When did John...
...go to Ruth's party? When Mary was asleep on the bed?
In that case he changed clothes twice.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Along with the many regular flashbacks in John and Mary, there were several flashbacks which are purposely erroneous. For example, we see Mary's apartment with the film director and the three Japanese men from her point of view, then later we see John's mistaken idea of what Mary's life and friends are like.
In addition to the illusory flashbacks, there at several flashes forward to events which never happen. Mary finishes writing her telephone number on the bathroom mirror and goes out the door, stopping to fumble in her purse. The film flashes forward to her explaining to Hilary that John really wasn't such a beast for throwing her out. This event never happened, because Mary realizes that John just needs time to accept their relationship, so Mary goes into John's kitchen to wait, instead.
Without realizing she hasn't gone, John dashes out after Mary, fails to find her and returns to discover Mary in his kitchen.
Likewise, just as John finishes wiping Mary's telephone number from his bathroom mirror, he pauses. The film flashes forward to John at Ruth's party's -- one of Ruth's other parties that John attended -- the one to which he wore his "nose-fluter shirt."
Immediately after this, John rushes out in search of Mary's apartment until the cabbie convinces him to give up. Then, John returns home to find Mary making supper in his kitchen.
The winter tennis/boolah-boolah montage was another one of Mary's interpretive illusory flashes forward which never happened.
The confusion over John's attendance at Ruth's party and Mary and Ruth's discussion of John is easy to misunderstand, especially for anyone who has only seen the film once. While I did pick up on what was going on the very first time I saw this movie, I must confess that it was only because I had read Mervyn Jones' novel before I saw Peter Yates' film.
Thank you so much for that great explanation.
Now I understand the film!
exactly. The flash forwards were John & Mary's assumptions of what the future could be & the flashbacks were subjective memories. I loved the interplay between their internal monologues vs. the reality of how the relationship actually plays out. John & Mary's forging of their relationship is shaped by each one's prior experience & assumptions of the the future.
shareWrong.
Well have the fish for dinner.
Wait, if John did not attend Ruth's party that same day then why did Ruth ask him about his little friend?
shareThat would have been during the flash forward to Ruth's party which John did not attend.
Ruth asks, "Where's your friend?" and John responds, "She left." Which starts Ruth on the bit about "They all have to go, don't they, love. As soon as they actually sit on a chair or spill ashes down the john."
That is part of John's anticipation of how the party will go. Possibly also, that is John beginning to recognize his problem with women.
We have seen John and Mary together since they met in the bar the night before. Both have "thought" about people in their past, present and "speculated" on the future. Both have "speculated" (mostly incorrectly) about the other person's past, present, and their future. What they have not done, until John caught a cab and rode around looking for Mary's place, was leave John's apartment. Also, they did not have any company.
How would Ruth have know about John's friend, Mary? They never met. Only the Ruth in John's imagination could have known about Mary.
Wow so many variations on this page and all of them correct. To me the flash forwards and flash backwards were injected to make the movie more entertaining which it certainly did. But to answer a couple of questions simply, here is what really happened:
Ruth knew about Mary because she telephoned John while Mary was there and sensed someone was there. She then asked John if someone was there by the way he was speaking to her.
John became irritated that Mary put her roommates needs before his bad sexual bout and decided it was not going to work out between them. He asked her to leave, wiped the mirror three quarters of the way and went off to Ruth's party which was when Ruth made the comments about his women issues. Ruth's comment made John realize he wanted to be with Mary so he returns home to try to read the mirror after which he begins searching for her in the cab.